Apparatus and method for accessing services via a mobile terminal

Abstract

A system, apparatus and method to allow provisioning of services and execution of those services at the mobile terminal. Services may be locally, remotely or manually provisioned within a mobile terminal and may be viewed by an end user of the mobile terminal after being filtered by context. The filtered list of services being accessible from a service panel of the mobile terminal, whereby the mere selection of the service allows execution of the service at the mobile terminal using the appropriate underlying communication technology with no further interaction required from the end user.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A method of accessing services on a mobile terminal, comprising: 
 collectively presenting one or more selectable service items by the mobile terminal, each of the selectable service items corresponding to a service;    facilitating user selection of at least one of the service items;    activating one of a plurality of access applications associated with the selected service item; and    invoking the service associated with the selected service item using the activated access application.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein invoking the service comprises initiating a content download request.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein: 
 activating one of a plurality of access applications comprises activating one of an SMS, MMS, HTTP, e-mail, Bluetooth, and IM applications resident on the mobile terminal and associated with the selected service item; and    wherein initiating the content download request comprises initiating the content download request via the activated one of the SMS, MMS, HTTP, e-mail, Bluetooth, and IM applications.    
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising associating one of the plurality of access applications with each of the selected service items  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein associating one of the plurality of access applications with each of the selected service items comprises provisioning the service corresponding to each of the selected service items on the mobile terminal, and associating the selected service item with the access application corresponding to a network service access technology identified via the provisioning.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein activating one of a plurality of access applications comprises activating the access application corresponding to the network service access technology.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein collectively presenting one or more selectable service items by the mobile terminal comprises presenting the selectable service items via a graphical user interface.  
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the services are provided via one or more of a wireless network, a wireline network, and a short-range wireless transmission technology.  
     
     
         9 . A method of accessing services offered via a network at a mobile terminal, the method comprising: 
 provisioning services onto the mobile terminal;    activating a service panel to display selectable symbols corresponding to the provisioned services;    filtering the provisioned services based on a context of the mobile terminal, and displaying the selectable symbols corresponding to context sensitive services; and    activating the context sensitive services by selecting a corresponding one of the filtered selectable symbols from the service panel.    
     
     
         10 . The method according to  claim 9 , wherein provisioning services onto the mobile terminal includes using a subscriber identity module (SIM).  
     
     
         11 . The method according to  claim 9 , wherein provisioning services onto the mobile terminal includes using Bluetooth enabled devices.  
     
     
         12 . The method according to  claim 9 , wherein provisioning services onto the mobile terminal includes using SyncML technology over a network.  
     
     
         13 . The method according to  claim 9 , wherein provisioning services onto the mobile terminal includes using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology.  
     
     
         14 . The method according to  claim 9 , wherein activating the service panel to display the provisioned services includes selecting a service panel entry from a display of the mobile terminal.  
     
     
         15 . The method according to  claim 14 , wherein the display of the mobile terminal includes a graphical display of information.  
     
     
         16 . The method according to  claim 14 , wherein the display of the mobile terminal includes a textual display of information.  
     
     
         17 . The method according to  claim 9 , wherein activating the context sensitive service includes: 
 locating service parameters from service parameter storage; and    using the service parameters to automate location and instantiation of the service from the network.    
     
     
         18 . A method for facilitating service execution by mobile terminals, the method comprising: 
 allocating a list of predetermined services to the mobile terminal;    filtering the predetermined list of services in response to a context of the mobile terminal;    activating a service panel to allow selection from the filtered list of predetermined services; and    launching the selected service by simply selecting from one of the services displayed by the service panel.    
     
     
         19 . The method according to  claim 18 , wherein allocating the list of predetermined services to the mobile terminal includes using a subscriber identity module (SIM).  
     
     
         20 . The method according to  claim 18 , wherein allocating the list of predetermined services to the mobile terminal includes using Bluetooth enabled devices.  
     
     
         21 . The method according to  claim 18 , wherein allocating the list of predetermined services to the mobile terminal includes using SyncML technology.  
     
     
         22 . The method according to  claim 18 , wherein activating the service panel to allow selection from the filtered list includes selecting a service panel entry from a display of the mobile terminal.  
     
     
         23 . The method according to  claim 22 , wherein the display of the mobile terminal includes a graphical display of information.  
     
     
         24 . The method according to  claim 22 , wherein the display of the mobile terminal includes a textual display of information.  
     
     
         25 . A mobile terminal comprising: 
 a provisioning means for receiving a list of services available to the mobile terminal;    a storage means to store content associated with the services;    a filter means coupled to the storage means to limit the list of services based on a context; and    a service panel means coupled to the filter means to display the services based on the context.    
     
     
         26 . The mobile terminal of  claim 25 , wherein the provisioning means is arranged to accept service configuration data from a subscriber identification module.  
     
     
         27 . The mobile terminal of  claim 25 , wherein the provisioning means is arranged to accept service configuration data from a SyncML enabled device.  
     
     
         28 . The mobile terminal of  claim 25 , wherein the provisioning means is arranged to accept service configuration data from a Bluetooth enabled device.  
     
     
         29 . The mobile terminal of  claim 25 , wherein the filter means uses a time of day to filter services.  
     
     
         30 . The mobile terminal of  claim 25 , wherein the filter means uses a position of the mobile terminal to filter services.  
     
     
         31 . The mobile terminal of  claim 25 , wherein the service panel means includes a graphical display device.  
     
     
         32 . The mobile terminal of  claim 25 , wherein the service panel means includes a textual display device.  
     
     
         33 . A system for facilitating service provisioning by mobile terminals, comprising: 
 at least one provisioning device used to provide a list of services; and    a mobile terminal coupled to the at least one provisioning device, the mobile terminal comprising: 
 a provisioning means for receiving a list of services available to the mobile terminal from the at least one provisioning device;  
 a storage means to store content associated with the services;  
 a filter means coupled to the storage means to limit the list of services based on a context; and  
   a service panel means coupled to the filter means to display the services based on the context.